What does it mean to be a Catholic in America today?

Where to begin . . .

This question has been much on my mind lately. Why?

For two reasons. One positive, and one not so positive.

First, I am feeling positive because we have a new pope, an American Pope, and that feels like an opportunity for American Catholics to be renewed in our Faith. More of us than ever before are paying attention to the words and deeds of this Pope precisely because he is an American. Will that make a difference to the US Catholic Church? We shall see.

But the second, not-so-positive reason this is on my mind is that I think religion and our form of government seem to be entangled at this moment in a way that is detrimental to both.

Our Catholic faith calls us to be different, to be “not of the world” according to Jesus (see John 17:16). In fact, in Matthew 5:13-16, Jesus said to his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth . . . You are the light of the world . . . Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

So, we are called as Catholic Christians to be doers of good deeds and good examples to the others we live with. Are American Catholics fulfilling that call?

The answer to the first part of the question - how Pope Leo XIV, an American Pope - will influence American Catholicism - belongs to the present moment and to the future. The answer to the second part of the question - why American Catholicism is the way it is, and how effectively it witnesses to Christ - is part of our past. And it is only by understanding where we come from that we can move forward, together, to meet the challenges of this moment.

That is where I want to begin.

The Church before the US was formed – prior to 1770

This part of the story begins with the Spanish landing in Central America and the Caribbean. Spanish explorers were in search of land and riches and glory, and the Church was at their side. Jesuit missionaries accompanied these first colonizers, and they brought their faith with them, committed to converting all they met, in any way necessary.

The Church even had an entire policy for this - The Doctrine of Discovery – issued in 1452 by Pope Nicholas V. This doctrine authorized explorers from Catholic European nations to seize lands discovered during their explorations - if the lands were not already occupied by Christians. The Doctrine of Discovery established a religious, political and legal justification for the seizure and colonization of lands not already inhabited by Christians.

Effectively, it gave Christian nations the blessing of the Church in their efforts to conquer new lands and convert indigenous peoples to "the true faith."

Spanish Catholicism that began in Central and South America and the Caribbean eventually spread to Florida and across the southwest toward California.

A little later, but similarly, the French landed in Canada accompanied, again, by missionaries. Like their Spanish brethren, French missionaries sought to convert "the heathen.” They traveled down the great American river systems - the Mississippi, the Ohio and the Missouri Rivers - spreading their faith and opening territory to the West and South of what would become the United States.

Why do I think these pre-US Catholic incursions are important? Because they have contributed to the mythology about the founding of our nation . . . that America was a wild and “unoccupied” continent ripe for the taking by enterprising European explorers. Unoccupied, that is, except for those they considered heathens who needed to be converted.

Any way you look at it, the Doctrine of Discovery helped fuel hundreds of years of colonial exploitation of North, South and Central America by providing a religious rationale for European powers to conquer lands and subjugate native peoples.

The violent and dismissive behavior that this doctrine allowed is something that our Church (and eventually our nation) must recognize and address. The Church began this process with a trip by Pope Francis to Canada in 2022 to acknowledge wrongs done at Indian Schools operated by Catholic priests and sisters.

Shortly after Pope Francis returned home, the Vatican issued a statement repudiating “those concepts that fail to recognize the inherent human rights of indigenous peoples, including what has become known as the legal and political ‘doctrine of discovery.’”

Although this series of events was widely reported in media in the US, it did not spark any “examination of conscience” in the United States. Far from it.

Indian Schools and the harm they did were not restricted solely to Canada. It is an unavoidable fact that the Church and the US government worked together in this effort. They operated many of these schools which attempted to forcibly convert and “civilize” Native American children. It was a dark time.

Perhaps during Pope Leo’s tenure, the Catholic Church will lead a reexamination into its complicity in this dark period of American history. Even if that’s not possible, I feel that in investigating US Catholic identity, this part of Catholic history in America cannot be overlooked.

Next time I’ll pick up the story with the coming of the first Catholic lay people to the New World.